The Northwestern Campaign

MacCaulay

Banned
I found this when I was cleaning out the computer. It was written in my senior year of high school for a creative writing class. There's some glaring faults that I see, but I think it has an alright flow, especially when put in the context that the whole paper is twenty typed pages long and was written in about two days. Be kind.

The Northwestern Campaign
An Overview
by Alan Smithee
Pre-1877 US History 101

Introduction
In retrospect, November 7, 1861 could not have sent history on any other course. In a way, the siezure and boarding of the British packet Trent by Union officers of the USS San Jacinto was just as obligatory as the Confederate attack on Fort Sumter. The British Empire and it's boisterous cousing, the United States, had been set on a collision course sing 1815. It was a course marked with beginnings of Manifest Destiny in the American camp, and with the continuin need of the British to prove themselves the maseters of their Empire. Now, afterwards, historians now concentrate on the might of the Royal Navy in battling the Union blockade, and the exploits of the Union Army in the Niagara Peninsula under Grant. Obviously, these are the showpiece battles. The ones that movies are made of. But in every war (and the British participation in American Civil War is no exception), the batles in what may seem the peripthery sometimes help the centre to come into focus.
Such is the point of this paper. I intend to provide a general overview of what is now known as the Northwestern Campaign: a long overlooked part of the Anglo-American conflict that widened the Civil War.

More to come.
 

MacCaulay

Banned
A Frontier in Flames


In late 1861, the Union Army in the recently created Northwestern Department was little more than garrison troops and rough and tumble Indian fighters. The Sioux Uprising, which began in the winter of that year, was consuming the time and energy of the Union troops in Minnesota and Iowa. It is impossible to see the Union in s such a position to open any sort of hostilities in the Northwestern Theatre without the Sioux Uprising. Military historians now consider it a bit of luck.
In August, the war chief Little Crow led a band of 400 Sissetons and Wahpetons against Fort Ridgely, in central Minnesota. Governor John Ramsey had appointed a fellow state politician, Henry Hastings Sibley, to command the forces charged with destroying the Sioux. Colonel Sibley, who had been a prosperous fur trader before making a run at politics (he would later serve two terms as Governer himself), was an inspired choice.
But Little Crow would prove his mettle as well. After massacring soldiers at the Lower Agency on September 3rd, he fell back to Dakota and returned two weeks later with 600 braves. Governor Ramsey had managed to cobble together a relief force under Sibley, but with the understanding from Washington that a General Officer would be assigned as soon as possible.
After a month of running battles, Sibley forced the Indians into a stand up fight at Wood Lake, decimating them in a running firefight that lasted from the 21st until the 23rd of September. The force that did this, one Iowa and two Minnesota Volunteer Infantry regiments, numbered just over three thousand me. This number is misleading, though. Indian fighting, unlike more structured fighting that took place throughout the Civil War, was more of a serires of skirmishes that melded into a single battle than a series of battle that melded into a single campaign.
It is with this tactical reality in mind that we can now judge that Colonel Sibley was the right man for the job, and fortunately was at the right place. A General Officer, and the administrative baggage that that Officer would entail, was not needed in that theatre of operations. There was no Wahpeton High Command to strategize against. But that strategic reality changed on November 24th, 1861.

taken from the New York Herald, November 26th, 1861:
It is now known that two days ago, the frigate USS St. Lawrence was fired upon and sunk by the HMS Duncan of the British Empire. What we, as a country, have long suspected has come true. The British, not haveing contented themselves with stabbing us in the back by colluding with the Rebels in the construction of blocaked runners and the purchase of cotton, now seek to punch us in the stomach with open warfare.

This could not have come at a more uncomfortable time for either the British Empire or the United States. With the Battle of Hampton Rhoades, the United States was faced with the shattering of it's blockade of the South, and looked for a similiarly perilous British holding to exert pressure on in return. They found it above the 49th Parallel.
"Canada is a tempting target," wrote Union General Winfield Scott. "I find it the only feasible way of striking the British with a possibility of success."
He was correct. An expeditionary force of 30,000 Redcoats had departed Rhoades in secret on the 20th of November, but Canada would be open to attack before then. Immediately, the eyes of Union war planners fell on the Niagara Peninsula.
"Toronto, Hamilton, and the other cities of the Peninsula may be more important to us than Ottawa itself," wrote Gen. Henry Halleck. "We cannot discount the immense boon that such an industrialized target could bring us."
It was against this backdrop that Abraham Lincoln prepared to mobilize the country still further. His military planners had already sent out bulletins via telegraph to the cities on the border.
But even telegraphy could not beat the Royal Army in one case.
 

MacCaulay

Banned
"...one can afford to be daring."

In retrospect, the Battle of Duluth, for all it's strategic importance, would have been considered a small raid had it taken place father east.
"This is the West," Colonel Bryant Halsey wrote. "In all His Majesty's dominions, only the plains of CAnada are so desolate and lonely that one can afford to be daring. One finds oneself infused with the energy of the Plains, the natives on horseback, and the way that life seems to flow in torrents of stagnate."
Colonel Sir Bryant Halsey was a very uncharacteristic soldier in the Royal Army. He delighted in the adventure stories of Thoreau, and seemed enamoured with the cavalry exploits of Stuart and Jackson in the Confederacy. And when the chance to make a name for himself beside those peers came, he took it with both hands.
His unit, the 4th Cheshire Dragoons, would be considered a regiment by the standards of the time. Halsey ran the Dragoons as if he believed it was an entire army. Upon receipt of the news of the declaration of war, he decamped his forces from an unspecified bivouac thirty miles above the porous border, and proceeded south. His plan, delivered back to Fort William by courier later that week, was to "strike the Union at a port with a swift atack, hopefully to draw them into action against prepared defences in our own territory."
Bluntly, Sir Halsey planned to draw the Union Army, what of it might come after him, into chasing him back across the border and into Canadain territory in the outset of winter. But first, he had to strike a soft, yet important, target. Duluth stood out.
It's port facilities could be used by the Union to raise and repair warships operating on Lake Superior, and many of the soldiers in Halsey's command, including Halsey himself, had been there before while transferring from West to East. In an odd twist of fate, the lack of transport over the Canadian Plaines before the war managed to aid them during it. Whole units of British troops, when moving from one side of the Upper Plains to the other, would pack their guns and move over the border and into Minnesota to take advantage of the transportation network. This provided Halsey's men with an interesting advantage. And they used it.
On the morning of November 29th, two hundred horsemen in British Red decamped from a farmhouse on Kerry's Ridge, eight miles north of Duluth. Around 6 o'clock, Halsey had his assistant blow the order to charge, and the Dragoons charged into history.

more to come...
 
I like your writing: detailed, like a good history book, not just facts and dates.
Keep up the good work!
 

67th Tigers

Banned
4th Cheshire Dragoons?

There is no 4th Dragoons in the British Army. All "Light Cavalry" units are numbered in a single sequence (1st-18th circa 1861), and the 4th is a Hussars unit.

No regular cavalry has any territorial connection (excepting the 2nd Dragoons (Scots Greys) and the remanants of the Irish Horse). Cheshire does indeed have a reserve a 4 Squadron Yeomanry Regiment:

http://regiments.org/regiments/uk/volmil-england/vcav/cheshire.htm
 

MacCaulay

Banned
67 Tigers: To be totally honest, this was written as a creative history assignment. I took some liberties. I put a unit in one place that I felt it should be in, then stepped back and looked at the overall picture with that unit there.
If you could find a unit that would be historically accurate for what I'm writing, I'd be happy to change it.

Thanks, everyone. More on the way.
 

MacCaulay

Banned
Danke shein, Tigers. Expect some more posts up here tomorrow. Hope you stay tuned. What are your thoughts on the non-technical aspects? Overall presentation?

I guarantee that you of all people will have some laughs at where I'm going to take this.
 

67th Tigers

Banned
While moving against Washington was part of the Concept of Operations for a war with the Union, the bulk of the available army was to go to Canada and the Maritimes.

For the British were dispatching about a Brigade a week from home to Canada. Thus when the news of the Trents resolution was reached, 4 Brigades were in Canada (one was the standing garrison (on the Niagara peninsula), one was from the Guards Division and the other two drawn from the Division at Colchester (at Montreal)), plus another 2 in the Maritimes (one at Halifax and one on the Maine border).

The British planned on putting 70,000 regulars into Canada, 10,000 Volunteers (from Militia/ Volunteer forces), plus the Canadian Militia (from responses to the limited callout of the Canadian Militia in December 61, I'd estimate 80-100,000 militiamen would embody, only about 65-70,000 would be suitable for field service. Then the Militias of the Maritimes are quite large too, at 50-60,000 estimated response to embodiment).

This was mainly to bolster Canadian defences. Once the British were satisfied Canada was secure forces may have been released to Milne for assaulting up Chesapeake Bay and the Potomac, in conjunction with CS forces.

Assuming no major increases until Summer 62 (it will take about that long to form additional forces if you don't deplete the replacement pool), we have to ask what forces the British have to spare? The Canadians have some quite well trained and equipped troops in the militia, but the rest will need training and rearming with modern weapons.


This is, of course, circular, as the question becomes how much can the Union disengage to attack Canada?
 

67th Tigers

Banned
If a full Colonel, he'd generally command a Brigade, although the vageries of the British promotion system sometimes saw a regiment get a 2nd Colonel (i.e. the Lt Col reached 5 years in that rank and was promoted, but didn't move).

Wellesey is a prime example of this, being a 2nd full Colonel of the 33rd in India.
 

MacCaulay

Banned
Much thanks, everyone. When we last left the British (who are undergoing a unit change at the moment), they were charging into history...


"The Streets were Chaos."

As the British rode into Duluth, the entire garrison of the town, all eighty men of Company C, 4th Minnesota Volunteer Infantry, were just scrambling out for reveille.
"We noticed that there was smoke coming from across town. And we could hear shooting, lots of it," a private wrote later. "We grabbed our Springfields, but we thought that maybe they were fireworks or something at first."
The British managed to burn a hotel and several other buildings before any organized resistance could be mounted. As Redcoats rode across an open lot towards a tall grain elevator, the men of Company C, on one knee in a firing line at the other end of the lot, opened fire and put a volley right into the attackers. Some shots went wild, but at a range of only forty yards, it was hard to miss. The British managed to make it to the elevator, and set it on fire. Immediately, the structure exploded in a fire fed by the dry grain stored inside. A pall of black smoke rose over the city.
Meanwhile, at the docks, the men of first platoon had been dispatched to get the word out to the telegraph station and then to hold the area. With them they had a horse drawn 3-inch howitzer, and very little clue how to use it. They were Indian fighters, and the need to use a field piece never came up. Slowly, but surely, they positioned the piece pointing down Edding Street, west towards the grain elevators. In a moment that was then panic-induced thoughtlessness, they then constructed a barricade a half block in front of the artillery piece.
"We saw that damned thing go up real good," wrote Cpl. W.C. Fields. "If it hadn't been for the Redcoats, I'd imagin (sic) I'd have enjoyed that pretty well. We figured we could've chased the Redcoats from block to block, but as soon as we started firing, the Streets were Chaos."
The surviving British that made it out of the ambush in the open lot and managed to make it past the furiously burning elevator found their way towards their next target: the Duluth docks. What exactly the British were expecting to find there is unclear. They charged with a zeal that seems to show that Halsey had instilled in them a belief that there might be Union ships there. With the exception of a Wisconsin-bound fishing boat and a yacht, there weren't any. What they did find, though, was the men of First Platoon guarding the telegraph station and the only approach to the docks.
It seems now, looking back, that the Union civilian that had the common sense to begin blocking the streets may have saved the battle. It was not a victory, but it could have been worse. The British found their way blocked at every intersection by overturned wagons and thrown bottles. When they finally made a headlong charge to break out, they picked Edding Street, leading back to the lot.
As the British climbed the barricades, the men of First Platoon fired into them with grapeshot; two volleys. Not expecting artillery, the British fell back behind the blockade they were trying to climb a few moments earlier. The survivors were cut to ribbons by another round of canister fired point blank into the roadblock.
Meanwhile, the rest of Company C was setting up ambushes through the town, attempting to repeat their initial success. This caused them to be a bit more stationary, and the British horsemen moved swiftly to burn more buildings. Finally, after a half hour of pot shots and fleeting glimpses, the Minnesotans moved into teh top floors of four buildings lining 10th Street. The buildings, the tallest in the city, enabled them to take careful aim and pour fire down on the British.
Halsey, seeing that his surprise was pretty well expired and that almost three blocks of the city were smoking, was content to have the bugler blow Withdraw.
His audacious plan, or the beginning of it at least, had worked. With the loss of only ten men, he had managed to catch the Union unawares.Now, he would have to hope that whichever Union General was in command in this territory would be headstrong and short-sighted enough to follow him back into Canada in the beginning of winter.
It's well known that Sibley didn't want to go. But on November 31st, as his men hit farmhouses and towns on the way back into Canada, Halsey got his wish.
General John Pope was assigned to command in the Northwest District, covering Minnesota, Iowa, and the Dakota Territory. Pope was still tarred with his disastrous stint as head of the Army of the Potomac. He wanted to show he was still the equal of that Little Napoleon who was commanding now. And to do that, by order of the US Army, the five regiments of infantry and one regiment of cavalry in the Northwest District was augmented by another two regiments of infantry and cavalry and given a new designation: the Army of the Great Lakes.

more to come...
 

67th Tigers

Banned
A quick one, Howitzers don't generally fire grape (nor, I believe, are any Howitzers that small, 3 inch is about a 4 pounder, a very small piece when 6 pounders were considered too light for the battlefield. The British main field piece was a 12 pounder breachloading rifle, and the US tried to standardise on 12 pounder smoothbores).

I'm not particularly convinced by the battle. Perhaps you could "crib" from the IRL 2nd Battle of Buenos Aires, where the British got a similar kicking:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_invasions_of_the_Río_de_la_Plata

http://www.regiments.org/wars/19fr-nap/807am-s.htm
 

MacCaulay

Banned
Bump. I think 67th Tigers wanted to see it. I'll be putting the rest up here over the course of the weekend if I can get my cord to work on my computer to transfer it.
 
MacCaulay

I would like to see more as well please, as it looks interesting. Will there be consideration of the effects after the war as well?

Steve
 
One thing with all of the Trent TLs. If the situation was reversed and a British ship stopped a US flagged vessel at sea and boarded her the US governemnt would be expected to submit to the incident without question. After all this is The Royal Navy we are talking about. The San jacinto's stopping of the Trent and the removal of the Confederate representatives (who were from a government not recongnized by the UK) is in reality a pretty sad excuse for the British Empire to go to war.
 

67th Tigers

Banned
One thing with all of the Trent TLs. If the situation was reversed and a British ship stopped a US flagged vessel at sea and boarded her the US governemnt would be expected to submit to the incident without question. After all this is The Royal Navy we are talking about. The San jacinto's stopping of the Trent and the removal of the Confederate representatives (who were from a government not recongnized by the UK) is in reality a pretty sad excuse for the British Empire to go to war.

It's a Royal Mail Ship, not a merchant but a government vessel. It's the same as attacking a warship.

Hundreds of British flagged merchant vessels were seized by the USN, with no real problems.
 
Much thanks, everyone. When we last left the British (who are undergoing a unit change at the moment), they were charging into history...


"The Streets were Chaos."

<snip>
"We saw that damned thing go up real good," wrote Cpl. W.C. Fields. "If it hadn't been for the Redcoats, I'd imagin (sic) I'd have enjoyed that pretty well. We figured we could've chased the Redcoats from block to block, but as soon as we started firing, the Streets were Chaos."
<snip>
more to come...


Corporal W. C. Fields. Yaaaasss. No doubt an excellent juggler with the pay records, forsooth. 'Twas once afflicted with an awful ailment that could have been beri-beri, bots, or that most dreaded of all diseases, mogo on the gogogo. Always travels with three knapsacks, one for his kit, one for his books, and one full of whiskey should he happen to encounter a snake --- which he also carries in an ammunition pouch.
 
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